History of Chautauqua County, New York, Part 13

Author: Edson, Obed, 1832-; Merrill, Georgia Drew, editor
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Boston, Mass. : W.A. Fergusson
Number of Pages: 1068

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Colonel Brodhead estimated that these Indian villages contained 130 unusually large houses ; some of them large enough for three or four families. Here was shown the natural superiority of the Six Nations over the other Indian races in the advance in civilization that they had made in this isolated

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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.

region. Their houses were substantial ; some constructed of logs, a part of round and others of square timber, while others were frame buildings. Around them were extensive and highly-cultivated fields of grain and vege- tables. Colonel Brodhead declared that he never saw finer corn, although it stood much thicker than white farmers plant this grain. From the great quantity of corn that was here in the ground and the number of new houses built and building, Colonel Brodhead inferred that the whole of the Seneca and Munsey nations contemplated settling here. At the approach of the troops to the first village the Indians fled leaving several packs of deerskins. The work of destruction was soon commenced, and continued for three days . without interruption from the Indians, they having retreated to the woods. Eight towns were set in flames ; the corn was next cut down and piled into heaps, and over 500 acres were destroyed. $3000 worth of plunder was taken. At the Upper Seneca town a painted war post or pagod clothed in dogskins was found which was committed to the river. This place was called Yongh- roonwago ..

Colonel Brodhead makes no mention of advancing beyond these towns. Mrs. Mary Jemison, who is usually accurate, states in her narrative that he ascended to Olean Point destroying all the Indian villages on the Allegany.

Brodhead's expedition was in advance of that of Sullivan. About the time he was completing the destruction of the Seneca towns on the Alle- gany, Sullivan having been joined by the troops of General Clinton was more than one hundred miles to the east, contesting the battle of Newtown with the forces of Brant and Butler near Elmira ; and it was not until two weeks later that Sullivan reached the heart of the Seneca country on the Genesee river, and entered upon the destruction of the Indian towns, corn and orchards. This early movement of Brodhead undoubtedly served to divert the attention and distract the efforts of the Indians and to aid Sulli- van. Brodhead could it is probable have easily united his forces to those of General Sullivan, by pursuing the Indian trail along the Allegany to Olean, and thence to Canada and along the Genesee. Indeed Brodhead wrote to General Sullivan, October 10, 1779, that he should have marched to Gene- see. if he had not been disappointed in getting shoes for his men.

Having completed the destruction of the upper Indian towns the Ameri- cans began their return. On their way they consigned to the flames Cona- wago aud Buckaloons. The ronte chosen for their return march was the Venango road. According to a private letter they crossed Oil creek several times, and their attention was attracted to the inflammable oil issuing from its channel and the adjacent springs, which they thought resembled British oil. The Massachusetts Magazine in 1780, referring to this expedition states that in the northern part of Pennsylvania, " there is a creek called Oil creek which empties into the Allegheny river. It issues from a spring on the top

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THE REVOLUTION.

of which floats an oil similar to that called Barbadoes tar, and from which one may gather several gallons a day. The troops sent to guard the western posts halted at this spring, collected some of this oil, and bathed their joints with it. This gave them great relief from the rheumatism with which they were afflicted. The water, of which the troops drank freely, operated as a gentle purge."*

After destroying Maghinqnechahocking, an Indian village of 35 large houses, Col. Brodhead returned to Fort Pitt, where he arrived September 14, 1779, having burned ten Indian villages (165 houses) destroyed more than 500 acres of corn, and taken $3000 worth of furs and other plunder, and without losing man or beast.t

The expeditions of Sullivan and Brodhead, and the destruction of the Indian towns and cornfields, threw the Indians upon the hands of their Brit- ish employers for support. During the succeeding winter want and disease swept many of them away ; yet it did not put a stop to their inroads. Exas- perated by their misfortunes, manrauding parties of Indians led by Brant and Cornplanter; and other chiefs, aided by their allies the tories, during the remainder of the war visited the frontier settlements of New York and Pennsylvania from the Mohawk to Wyoming Valley ; burning the houses of the settlers, killing many, and carrying others into captivity. Fort Niagara had usually been the winter quarters of Brant, Guy Johnson, the Butlers and other tories who had taken refuge in Canada. It now became also the head quarters of the Indians who had been driven from the Genesee and Allegany, and the point at which all of these maurauding parties of Indians and tories were accustomed to assemble, and from which they took their departure upon these hostile incursions ; and to which they returned laden with spoil and scalps, and with such men, women and children as they had made pris- oners, compelling them in some instances to run the gauntlet, and subjecting them to other cruelties.

*The first notice we have of the oil springs is in a letter written by the Franciscan missionary Joseph de la Roche D'Allion in 1629. He gives the Indian name of the place, which he explains to mean " there is plenty here." In view of the vast wealth extracted from the earth in this region during the later years, this name would seem prophetic. His letter was printed in Sagard's "Histoire du Canada." Peter Kalm, in his " Trav- (Is in North America" published in 1772 refers to the oil springs ; and on a map in his book their exact location is given.

+"Brodhead's expedition has usually been considered of little moment, and it has even been denied or doubted by some writers that it ever took place. Its incidents are for the first time carefully collated and fully told by Obed Edson in The Magazine of History for Nov. 1579." 4th Vol. Bryant's History of the U. S., page 7, note.

¿Gy-ant-wa-chia, the Cornplanter, who exercised rude authority in these regions, was a celebrated Seneca warrior and chieftain, and the rival of the Indian orator Red Jacket. His sagacity, eloquence, and courage for a long time justly gave him great influence with his tribe. He was born abont 1732, at Conawaugus, on the Genesee river. His father was a white man named John O'Bail, or Abeel ; his mother was a Seneca. Ga-ne-o- di-yo, or Handsome Lake, the prophet, and Ta-wan-ne-ars, or Blacksnake, were his half-brothers. When about twenty-three he first appeared as a warrier with the army of French and Indians which defeated Brad- dock in 1755 ; and he probably afterwards participated in the principal Indian engagements during the Revolu- tion, fighting against the colonies. He is said to have been present at Wyoming and Cherry Valley, and was with Brant at the head of his tribe in opposing Sullivan's expedition. He afterwards led the Senecas in the invasion of the Mohawk Valley, when, it is said, he made his father, John O'Bail, a prisoner, and, after march-

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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.

In the fall of 1781, Colonel Brodhead was superseded in the command at Pittsburgh by Col. William Irvine who contined to be the commanding offi- cer there until the close of the Revolution. There is reason to believe that while General Irvine was in command at Pittsburgh an expedition was or- ganized at Fort Niagara for an attack on Fort Pitt, and that in 1782 a large party of British and Indians proceeded so far as to actually embark in canoes upon Chautauqua lake, when the expedition was abandoned on account of the supposed strength of Fort Pitt. " The last blood shed in the field during the war," says Bancroft, " was at Cambahee Ferry in South Carolina, on the 27th of August, 1782, when the young and gallant Laurens fell mortally wounded." According to Lossing the last life sacrificed was that of Captain Wilmot who was killed at Stone Ferry in September following.

This expedition of which we have spoken was the last that occurred in the North during the Revolution. It ended in the burning of Hannastown, once a famous but now almost forgotten town of Westmoreland county in western Pennsylvania. The destruction of Hannastown occurred on the 1 3th of July, 1782, not two months before the affair in which Colonel Laurens fell. A considerable number of persons residing in Hannastown and vicinity were either killed or carried prisoners to Canada. After the war the captives were delivered up and returned to their homes.

AApprehensions Had long been entertained during the war of the Revolu- tion by Washington and the American commandant at Pittsburgh that the British meditated a descent upon that post from Niagara. In 1779 intelli- gence was received that Butler and two hundred rangers designed attacking it when strawberries should be ripe. In 1781 Washington was informed that Sir John Johnson and Colonel Connely were collecting a large force to proceed against Pittsburgh, and Colonel Brodhead, who then commanded there

ing him several miles with the usual Indian stoicism without disclosing himself, he abruptly, and in the senten- tion- manner of the Indian, announced his relationship, and gave D'Bail his choice, to live with him and his red followers, where he would support him at ease in his old age, or to return to his home on the Mohawk. He chose the latter, and Cornplanter sent his young men to conduct him back in safety. Cornplanter was an able man, and also honest and truthful ; he acted a most conspicnons part in the treaties and transactions between the Indians and the United states subsequent to the Revolutionary war, and he saw, at its close, that the true policy of the Indian was to recognize the growing power of the United States, and bury the hatchet. He advised his tribe to this course, in opposition to the counsels of Brant and Red Jacket, and during the Indian wars that followed, he remained the true and steadfast friend of the United States. In the last war with fing- land, when al out eighty-four years old, accompanied by 200 warriors of his nation, he called upon Col. Sammel brake, at Franklin and offered his services to the United states, which were declined for the want of authority to monster Indians into the service. A considerable number of his tribe. however, led by his son. Henry Abeel, who had a commission as major, acted during the war as scouts and did good service to the United States. Commplanter often visited Chautauqua county; and years before its settlement by the first white man. he thoroughly understood the geography of its lakes and streams. After the Revolution he resided principally at Jen-nes-a-da-ga. his village, on the Allegany river, in Warren county, and, for the remainder of his life, nity years, became thoroughly indentified with this region of country. Cornplanter died at Jennesadaga, aged about 15 years. A monument was erected in ise by the state of Pennsylvania, over his remains ; upon which the following inscriptions were lettered: " John O'Bail, alias Cornplanter, died at Cornplanter town, February is, 15%, aged about two years, chief of the Seneca tribe, and principal chief of the Six Nations, from the period of the Revolutionary war to the time of his death. Distinguished for talents, courage, eloquence, sobriety and love of his tribe and race, to whose welfare he devoted his time, his energies and his means, during a long and eventful lite."

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carefully guarded against such an attempt. In June or July, 1782, Col. William Irvine who then commanded at . Pittsburgh, received repeated accounts from Canadians who deserted to him and from friendly Indians of a · strong force moving to attack him. , In August of that year he picked up at Fort Pitt a number of canoes that had drifted down the river. Subsequent to the Revolution, while exploring Chautauqua lake he learned further par- ticulars of the expedition. In a long and entertaining letter to General Washington, dated January 27, 1788, General Irvine communicated many facts concerning this force and Chautauqua lake where they had assembled. Information respecting this armament had been communicated to General Irvine by a white man named Matthews, who was taken prisoner by the Indians in 1777, and also by a chief of the Seneca tribe, concerning which he wrote :

" The Seneca related many things to corroborate and convince me of its ; truth. He stated that he was constantly employed by the British during the late war, and had the rank of captain, and that he commanded the party which was defeated on the Allegany by Colonel Brodhead ; that in the year 1782, a detatchment composed of 300 British and five hundred Indians was formed and actually embarked in canoes on Lake Jadaqua with twelve pieces of artillery, with an avowed intention of attacking Fort Pitt. This expedition was laid aside in consequence of the reported repairs and strength of Fort Pitt carried by a spy from the neighborhood of the fort. They then contented themselves with the usual mode of warfare by sending small parties on the frontier, one of which burned Hannastown. I remember well that in Ang- nst, 1782, we picked up at Fort Pitt a member of canoes which had drifted down the river ; and I received repeated accounts, in June and July from a Canadian who deserted to me, as well as from some friendly Indians of this armament ; but I never knew before where they assembled. Both Matthews and the Seneca desired to conduct me to the spot on the shore of Lake Jada- qua where lies one of the fourpounders left by the French. Major Finley who has been in that country since I was informed me that he had seen the gun."

It does not appear that this gun was ever found by the early settlers. The rusty remains of it may yet be discovered.

The King's 8th regiment has long been stationed in Canada, and its field of operations during the Revolution embraced Fort Niagara and that portion of Canada bordering on western New York. This regiment undoubtedly participated in the expedition over Chautauqua lake. Jackets left by the enemy when they returned from Hannastown marked " King's Eighth" attest its presence on that occasion.

Near the inlet which flows into Chautauqua lake not far from Hartfield as late as 1810 were to be seen many decayed and moss-covered stumps. Jolin West an early settler stated to the writer in 1872 that he came into the county in 1810. He came in at Westfield, and went over the Old Portage Road to Mayville.

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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.

"I came out of the village of Westfield near where Main street is now and crossed the creek about where it does now. It went on to Mayville about where the road now runs, saw trees that appeared to have been cut down a good while ago. When I went over this road there was not much travel. Salt and goods and lignors were carried over this road in those days. It went down to the lake. . At the inlet near Hartfield there was a place on the ereck towards the lake fiom Hartfield, not over a quarter of a mile from the lake on the east side of the creek, where there were many stumps of trees that had been out ; quite a number of the stumps were covered with moss, and appeared to have been out years and years when I first came into the country. Edward Hovey owns the land, and it is not now cleared I think. These stumps were about one-half mile from Hartfield and one-quarter of a mile from the road that now runs near there. I could see the tops of the trees that fell from these stumps but not the bodies.

The bodies of the trees felled from these stumps had been removed and used ; perhaps made into piroques or canoes. The tops and unavailable parts remained where they fell.

In :822 William Bemus in making an attempt to deepen the channel of the outlet of Chautauqua lake, discovered a row of piles averaging four inches in diameter and from 212 to 312 feet in length, driven firmly into the earth across the bed of the stream. Axe-marks were plainly visible on each of the four sides of those piles, the wood of which was sound. The tops of these piles were worn smooth, and did not appear when discovered to reach above the bed of the stream. They were placed there years before the settlement of the country to dam and raise the waters of the lake, it is supposed, suffi- cient to create a flood that would bear boats down the river.

This letter was written by the late Hon. James Prendergast to the writer : JAMESTOWN, NOV. 3RD, 1874.

OBED EDSON, ESQ., Dear Sir : In response to your request I have gleaned from my father all the information he possesses in regard to the matter I spoke of last week. He says my grandfather first came to where Jamestown now stands in 1806 ; at that time he discovered a tract of land nearly an acre in extent cleared of everything, trees, stumps and brush, excepting one large pine tree which stood nearly in the centre, and had been burned on one side several inches deep, but the sear had been nearly covered by the growing bark. That tree was nearly three feet in diameter. Grass was growing quite luxuriantly on the whole piece. This tract was opposite the boat-landing on the west side of the ontlet, where the boat-land'ng bridge now crosses. My grandfather foand the stumps of many oak trees (in the woods adjoining the cleared traet) which he judged had been cut from fifty to sixty years. These trees had been out with an axe, and the limbs and such portions of the bo l- ies as had not been used were all decayed. The spiles were found in the outlet a short distance below this point. My father, Alexander T. Prender- gast, distinctly remembers this cleared tract (and the large pine spoken of) having often visited it before any of the surrounding forest was cut away.

Wishing you success, believe me, Yours sincerely,

JAMES PRENDERGAST."

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The apparent antiquity of some of these evidences of the presence and labors of white men before the settlement of the county would indicate that they were the work of the French prior to 1782, although it is quite likely that to some extent they may have been the work of the British that year.

No other event of importance occurred in this region during the war of the Revolution, after this expedition over Chautauqua lake .*

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T HE disasters that attended the celebrated expedition of General Harmer against the Indians in 1790 encouraged them to renewed acts of hos- tility ; and in the spring of 1791, the settlements along the Allegany river above Pittsburgh were repeatedly visited by them, and women and children often massacred ; even northwestern Pennsylvania suffered from their excursions. The defeat of St. Clair by the Indians in November, 1791, rendered them still more bold and ferocious ; and for a year thereafter great alarm extended along the frontiers ; and not until the successful termination of Wayne's expedition into the Indian country, were the frontier settlements entirely freed from danger of Indian hostility.t August 20th, 1794, General Wayne completely defeated the Indians in a general battle on the Maumee river. This decisive victory put an end to their power for harm to the border settlers. By a treaty made at Greenville with the different tribes of Western Indians, July 30th, 1795, the greater part of Ohio was ceded to the United States, a long period of border war ended, and peace was for the first time established in these Western wilds which had never known any other condition than that of continued savage and relentless strife.

Chautauqua county, before this treaty, had been a deep solitude, far dis- tant from the most advanced outposts of permanent settlement ; vet often the scenie of warlike demonstrations. Fleets filled with armed and veteran Frenchmen had passed along its shores ; Beaujean, the gallant Frenchman, who lead the handful of his countrymen that defeated Braddock ; St. Pierre, La Force, and Joncaire-names that have become celebrated in the history of the French occupation in America, were once familiar with this county ; and the war-path of veritable savage warriors armed with tomahawk and scalping-knife may have led through its forests.

*For a full account of the expedition, of the Kings 8th regiment, and of the burning of Hannastown see paper read before the Chautauqua Society of History and Natural Science by the writer.

tDuring this war one of Col. James McMahan's chain bearers was shot and scalped by the Indians while he was surveying the public land in Warren county, Pa., near the Broken-Straw.

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HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY, N. Y.

The peace made at Greenville was long and faithfully observed. It gave permanent security to the frontiers of Ohio, and made all the country east- ward safe for settlement. Now the beautiful and fertile regions that extend far northwest of the Ohio, began to attract the attention of the people of the east. The restless enterprising spirit, that so eminently distinguishes the American people, was for the first time greatly stirred by bright visions of homes and fortunes to be achieved in the " Far West." Pioneers of settle- ment awaited only the extinction of Indian claims, the settlement of land titles, and adjustment of boundary lines, to lead a great army of emigrants into the northwest, and in less than a hundred years, to fill it with 20,000- 000 of inhabitants, and to found one of the great cities of the world in its very heart. Chicago at the beginning of the present century did not contain a single inhabitant. In the recollection of some now living, the site of that city was in the midst of a region harassed by border wars; even the scene of a frightful Indian massacre. Where sixty years ago was scarcely roo inhab- itants, there are now 1,000,000 people ; the place where the anniversary of a continent has been held, and the industry and progress of the age displayed on a scale so magnificent as to dwarf the past expositions of the great cities of the Old World. This American city is of itself the greatest exposition of private energy and enterprise that the world has ever known.

Preparatory to the occupation of the new lands of the West, and quickly following the treaty of Greenville, sales of lands in Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania were made on a large scale. We may trace the title of tracts as extensive as some of the kingdoms of Europe through private companies, sometimes through individuals, until the subdivided lands reach the actual settler. It is interesting to know the tenure by which the people of this country through its first settlers hold the soil. To properly understand it it is necessary to trace the right of ownership from its original source.

French enterprise outstripped the English in exploring and in effecting a permanent settlement of this continent particularly in the valley of the Mississippi. We have referred to the perseverance of the French during nearly 300 years in exploring, settling, and reclaiming the west. Our read- ing of English history and our Anglo-Saxon prejudices have no doubt led us in some measure to overlook the enterprise, the patience, and courage of the French in prosecuting their discoveries in the very heart of this western con- tinent, the greater part of which was still unsettled within the memory of people now living. Before the middle of the last century there were about 1, 100,000 inhabitants in the English colonies. These had not advanced into the wilderness, but extended along the coast from Florida to Newfoundland. The French had then settled in the valley of the Mississippi 1,005 miles or more from the ocean 8,000 persons excluding Indians. In pursuance of the advice given them by La Salle three-fourths of a century before, to unite their

VON

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possessions in Canada with those in the valley of the Mississippi by a line of forts, the French had established more than 60 military posts, besides many missionary agencies. The French and Indian War that occurred in the mid- dle of the last century arose directly out of the contention between England and France in regard to the boundary line between their respective territories in America. The English based their claim upon the discoveries made by the Cabots. The French denied that the mere discovery of and sailing along the coast of America, gave the English the right to all this vast continent even to the shores of the Pacific when they knew nothing of its interior. The French claimed that the discoveries and settlements, made by their mis- sionaries and pioneers in the valley of the Mississippi, and achieved under difficulties and hardships almost incredible, gave them the superior right to possession. It would seem, I think, to the impartial mind in the light of modern ideas of the rights of nations, that the actual occupation by the French did sustain the better claim.

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History of Chautauqua County, New York, Part 13

Author: Edson, Obed, 1832-; Merrill, Georgia Drew, editor Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Boston, Mass. : W.A. Fergusson Number of Pages: 1068

Author: Edson, Obed, 1832-; Merrill, Georgia Drew, editor
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Boston, Mass. : W.A. Fergusson
Number of Pages: 1068